Sometimes You Hear the Bullet Train
by Kihin Ranno
Summary: Usagi's done a bad, bad thing, and now Mamoru as usual , has to pick up the pieces.


Sometimes You Hear the Bullet Train  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge  
January 2010 - Usagi//Day Twenty-Two: Shinkansen  
by Kihin Ranno  
PG-13

He's seen Usagi this upset before - worse, actually - but it doesn't change the fact that her crying makes him want to simultaneously comfort her and plug his ears.

Mamoru loves her with his whole heart, but unconditional love of the girl doesn't mean he has to love the obnoxious way she wails when she's upset. Or the way she eats as though she hasn't been fed in years. Or the way her hair clogs up his shower every time she stays over. These things he doesn't love. These things he complains about over a beer or eight with Motoki, who assures him that he is a wonderful man to put up with such hardships for the sake of true love.

It's because he loves her that he never tells her that sometimes she drives him crazy, and why he doesn't cover his ears to block out the noise.

Haruka, who is not dating her, sees no reason to do the same.

"Thank Christ you're here," Haruka says, talking a little too loudly.

"What happened?"

"Youma on the train," Haruka says, as if he couldn't have guessed that. "She blew it up, and well..." She gestures at the surrounding area.

Mamoru doesn't ask for a more explicit explanation, deciding that it probably isn't necessary. And really, the scene does paint quite a picture. It's not every day you see the bullet train mangled and scattered across the ground.

"No one was inside, right?" he asks.

Haruka glares. "Do I look like an idiot?"

Wisely, Mamoru decides not to answer. "Then why is she so upset?"

"Damned if I know," Haruka snaps. "Look, would you just work your soothing mojo and quiet her down? I got kicked in the head, and she's really not helping me get over that."

He almost offers to help her with the pain, but then he realizes its probably better just to do what Haruka asks. After all, she's made it clear on more than one occasion that she can kill him with her pinky.

So Mamoru takes a deep breath and slowly picks his way towards the girl prostrate on the ground. He crouches beside her, not the least bit surprised when Usagi moves into his arms without looking up. After being together for so long, their bodies seem to be drawn to one another instinctively. Hell, it was probably happening before they even got together. How else can he explain the girl's propensity to literally run into him time and again?

"Usako," he murmurs softly, rubbing her back. "What's wrong?"

She blubbers and looks up at him incredulously. "I blew up a train! How can you even ask me that?"

He smoothes her hair away from her face. "I just mean that no one was hurt. You defeated the youma. Haruka's... fine. So what are you upset about?"

Usagi lets out another wail. Mamoru fights not to wince. "Oh, Mamo-chan. I don't know what to do..."

"About what, Usako?"

Then she looks up at him, eyes shining bright blue and sparkling from her tears. Her lower lip quivers, poking out. She seems to tremble with grief he cannot understand, and he half expects her to tell him something earth-shattering and having nothing to do with the train issue. A million possibilities run through his mind. Is she pregnant? Is she leaving him? Did she cheat on him?

Mamoru finds himself wondering for the first time what his Usagi was doing on the train alone with Haruka. He wonders if he could get a punch or two in before Haruka's little finger does him in.

And then she tells him, "My allowance will never be able to cover the damages!"

For a moment, all he can do is stare.

"Yup," he hears Haruka sigh from behind him. "Should have seen that one coming."

At Haruka's utterance, Usagi falls into yet another crying jag. Its volume almost covers the sound of Haruka's groan. Mamoru knows if he doesn't do something quick, this might go on for quite awhile, and love will not change the fact that he's due in at the hospital in an hour.

"Usako," Mamoru practically shouts, struggling to be heard. "Considering we're going to rebuild this city from the ground up, I think the city of Tokyo will forgive a little collateral damage in this century."

She stops, her silence so sudden that it's jarring. "Really?"

"Really."

She looks up at him plaintively. "You promise?"

It strikes him not for the first time that she really is adorable, if a little exasperating. "Cross my heart."

Usagi suddenly beams up at him. She jumps to her feet, looking determined and beyond happy. Amazingly, he can't even tell she's been crying. "That's right! When I'm queen, I can build a hundred trains way better than this one! Then it won't even matter what happened today!"

"That's the spirit," Haruka drawls. "Can we go now?"

"Right!" Usagi leans down and pecks Mamoru on the cheek. "Thanks, Mamo-chan! You always know just what to say. Have a good day!"

And then she skips away with Haruka as if nothing ever happened.

When she cries, it sounds like an ambulance siren. She can't cook without burning the food or clean without breaking something. She often needs the simplest directions repeated to her several times in order to come even close to accomplishing a task successfully. She slaps him because she didn't tell him when her birthday was. She makes him crazy, makes him work harder than he has to, and makes him place his life in mortal danger because she still can't seem to fight a monster without tripping over her own feet.

But he loves her.

Even if it does take him a good ten minutes to remember that.


End file.
